Black, whose Meralco team got defeated by San Miguel in its last outing, used to play with Lim and eventually became his coach during Beermen’s grandslam years.

"[San Miguel assistant coach] Biboy Ravanes told me before the game that [Lim] collapsed. It puts everything in perspective. It’s always what you do in life. The fact that I’m still involved with basketball, but when you talk about life and death, it’s a different story," Black said. "After the game, Biboy told me that he’s comatose."

"He’s a great player, a great person, [has a] great attitude, hard worker, had a little bit of bad luck with injuries, but still, he’s probably the second most popular player in the league behind [Robert] Jaworski. I had a lot of good memories with Samboy."

Danny Ildefonso, for his part, said that he learned a lot from "The Skywalker.'

Ildefonso is a former San Miguel Beer player like Lim . They played against each other at the defunct PBL in 1998, when Lim suited for Welcoat after his PBA years while Ildefonso joined AGFA.

The Skywalker never got an MVP award in his 11 illustrious years in the PBA due to his failure to finish seasons. His gravity-defying moves had led him to suffer numerous injuries, forcing him to miss several games.

However, he still made it to the PBA hall of fame and was chosen as one of PBA’s 25 Greatest Players.

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PBA Advisory

2017 Commissioner's Cup Format

The tournament allows teams to hire foreign players or imports with a height limit of 6-foot-10.

The top 2 teams will earn twice-to-beat edges over Nos. 7 and 8 while the No. 3 against No. 6 and No. 4 versus No. 5 pairing will be a best-of-three affair in the quarterfinals.

The semifinal stage will have a pair of best-of-five matches and the finals will be a race-to-four affair.

Gilas Pilipinas

Manila will host one of the three tournaments in the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament. The Philippine national men’s basketball team will try to pull off massive upsets against France, New Zealand, Canada, Turkey and Senegal in the competition slated on July 5 to July 10 at Mall of Asia Arena.

A total of 18 teams will participate in the three-nation event whose champions will book tickets to the 2016 Rio Olympics.